Page 68 of Beautiful Prey

I had a taste of heaven—bright green eyes and a smile like summer—and now I would be tortured for an eternity, never to know of it again, sick with the knowledge that it had been a lie. A dirty cruel lie.She had done this to me, she had hurt me. Why?

You know why, idiot,the demon said, laughing.What? Can’t you put two of your last brain cells together to figure that out. You know why.

Martel.

The rage flamed my insides. Revenge was a cruel, sweet thing. Who knew I would feel its heavy blow like a hammer to the skull.What a big idiot you are, what a blind, heartsick asshole. You actually thought she liked you? Cared at all? Thought you had some kind of chance with her? You must be the most braindead sonofabitch on the whole island. You’re pathetic. She wanted you dead. She wanted you to suffer. Suffer for what you did.

They put me near the back of the bus and chained me to the seat which groaned underneath my weight, too small almost to fit me, my legs jammed underneath me. The men checked the bus, moving up and down. Then another patient like me was put toward the middle, mumbling to himself, on his way to suffer with me.

As the men talked and moved our bags below, I saw her at the corner of my eye, in the seat next to me. Her smile stretched to her ears, nasty crooked teeth showing. Her big eyes staredat me, unblinking. “Poor, poor, Emery,” she whispered. “You let her poison you.”

It was going to be a long-ass bus ride. I stared straight ahead, my hands in tight fists to keep myself from reaching out and trying to choke the bitch.

One of the men came aboard and walked slowly to me. John. He blocked her out of my sight which was nice.

“Hey, Emery,” he said. He went and sat in the seat next to me, making the smiling woman move back. He had something in his hand, and I recognized it instantly.

“I saw this stuffed in your mattress. I thought you might want it.” He offered the journal to me and set it carefully on my lap.

I didn’t move.

“She’s really sorry, you know,” John whispered. “I think she meant well, she really wanted to help you. It’s too bad.”

I didn’t respond.

“You take care of yourself, Emery, alright? Do your best. She’d want you to keep going, we all do. I don’t know what you're going to face, but you’re a strong guy. You’ll pull through. Good luck, Emery.”

He was gone and I sat there in silence feeling nothing. Slowly, I allowed myself to take hold of the leather-bound cover of the journal, gripping it in one hand. The smiling woman watched me.

“You stupid little cunt,” she hissed. “You filthy mutt. No one loves you, no one ever will. You should just die.”

I turned to look out my window, but the fog made it impossible to see. I heard a familiar voice outside the bus and my insides shriveled up. Of course she was here to see me off too.

I heard the clicking of her heels as she made her way down the aisle to me. She stood before me, and I didn’t bother to acknowledge her.

“You're a real disappointment,” Dr. Hannah said after a long pause. “But that’s no surprise. You’re a killer, after all, why should you try to make yourself better? Just because you had a sad childhood going from foster to foster that didn’t want you doesn’t mean you get to play the victim.” She paused again, waiting for me to say or do something. When I didn’t, she continued, “Honestly, I didn’t think you could get better, but I had to try. You're so sick in the head it was a surprise that crazy girl got you to do anything. All you had to do was take the medicine and you couldn’t even do that. But it’s because you really didn’t want help, did you? Because you liked what you did. You can fool everyone but not me.” She crouched, trying to catch my gaze. “You deserve to be locked up,” she said gently. “Rot in your cell. I tried to help, and you don’t want it. You’re a monster. So go ahead and be one and they can keep you in a cage where you belong.” Her nails tapped across the seat. “It's too bad we don’t lobotomize anymore,” she mumbled. “If I had my way…” She straightened, tilting her head. “At least I don’t have to deal with you any longer.”

What a nice goodbye.

The driver entered the bus and got in his seat. Dr. Hannah said something to him that I only caught part of.

“Just a ways…I’ll follow you down to Lansing…got business there.”

The driver nodded, and she disappeared. He shouted something out the window, before turning on the headlights.

Before the bus moved, two security men hopped inside. One slid into a seat at the front by the driver. The other came down my way and sat in front of me. He smiled at me, and I made my palm bleed from clenching it too tight. I remained still as he popped something into his mouth.

“You know they aren’t going to let you wear that where you're going, right?” he pointed to my face—the mask. “They won’t allow it.”

He grinned at my non-response.

The bus jolted and steadily made its way out of the lot, onto the road past the gate. The guard watched me with his black eyes.

I wanted to rip his throat out, but what did it matter now? My rage seemed reserved for only one. Not much room for another, even if I wanted to see this guy get bent, regretting that I hadn’t broken his legs when I had the chance. What a missed opportunity.

We were quiet until we made it past the bridge and on to a winding road through a tunnel of trees. Then he opened his mouth again. Really long-ass bus ride.

“It’s too bad about, Eve, huh?” he said. “Really messed up. It sucked having to tell you, but she was really toying with you. It wasn’t right to keep silent, you know?”

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